Cheney's "wild shot" at Putin part of escalating war for Central Asian oil

[BurtWorm]

http://business.guardian.co.uk/economicdispatch/story/0,,1772609,00.html?gusrc=rss

Cheney has Turkey in his sights

The vice-president highlighted an unheralded goal of US foreign policy when he took a shot at Russia, writes David Gow

Thursday May 11, 2006

Dick Cheney, the US vice-president who famously peppered a 78-year-old lawyer in a quail hunting accident, shot wildly again last week.

This time, as well as hitting a supposed friend, Russia, he shot himself in the foot as he denounced Russia's geo-political use of its oil and gas reserves as "tools of intimidation and blackmail".

He highlighted, in doing so, a relatively unheralded goal of US foreign policy: to turn Turkey into a conduit for energy supplies that bypass the control of President Putin and the majority state-owned Russian gas giant Gazprom.

It is a role Turkey, already a Nato member, is embracing, albeit with considerable anxiety and hesitation. It dovetails with Turkey's ambition to become the first predominantly Islamic country to be a full EU member. The Europeans, frightened off by Russia's abrupt closure of gas supplies to Ukraine earlier this year, are seeking to reduce their dependence on Gazprom, which already supplies a quarter of the EU's natural gas.

This is one of two overriding reasons why Turks see their country as an indispensable asset for Europe, its potential as a transit country for energy supplies between central Asia, a growing rival to Russia, and the EU. The other is its young population, which can help to provide solutions to Europe's ageing crisis....

[BurtWorm]

1. Makes you wonder if Iran is part of that same war.

:think: